Wednesday, August 01, 2007

it's that time of year, again --

I've entered the Annual Cancer Test Gauntlet.

Happy to report that phase I is going well so far, with a negative ultrasound on my poor mangled throat. The lumpy-stickiness is so far explained by a lot of fibrous tissue the doctor saw today. The only vaguely troubling thing she saw was a separation of my carotid artery and jugular vein, which are normally close together; she said sometimes recurrence can pop up there, but she didn't see any signs of it. So: yay!

Today also featured my first of two Thyrogen shots; second shot tomorrow, then dosed on Friday, then the scan on Monday -- which is also the kids' first day of school. So Monday I'll have an idea of whether or not anything's going on, but frankly I'll be astonished if the scan doesn't come back clean. My scans always come back clean... the problem is they've been clean when I've had cancer, so I don't put a tremendous amount of stock in clean scans. The number that really matters is the stimulated Tg (thyroglobulin), which I could theoretically get on Monday, also.

Whatever. I just want it to be over so I can get on with a) my life or b) plans to go to Houston for treatment. Of course a) is much preferred over b), and I'm 99.5% sure I won't be going to Houston... just imagine me figuratively drumming my fingers and checking my watch approximately every five minutes to see if the current round of this too-familiar ordeal is over yet.

When this is over, I'll have to schedule my eye exam, and I'm pretty sure I have a dermatologist appointment already. The one I really have to check is the mammogram, after last years' lumpectomy adventure, I'm not sure whether I can just go for a regular mammogram, or have to have the ultrasound as well.

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